Blooming Grove man admits fatal stabbing

GOSHEN -- A Blooming Grove man pleaded guilty Thursday to killing a City of Newburgh man during a robbery attempt.

Steven Hamilton, 32, pleaded guilty in Orange County Court to second-degree murder in the May 17 stabbing death of Daquan Nugent, 21, on Third Street in Newburgh.

As Nugent's mother dabbed at tears in the gallery, Hamilton admitted to Judge Nicholas De Rosa that he stabbed Nugent while trying to rob him of crack cocaine.

In exchange for the guilty plea, Assistant District Attorney Leah Canton will recommend a sentence of 22 years to life in prison. Judge De Rosa promised to impose a sentence of 18 years to life.

Hamilton, who is represented by lawyer Bruce Townsend, will be sentenced on Oct. 15.

Outside court, Katherine Nugent spoke about her son. She said she knows what he was doing to support himself was wrong, and she had tried to convince him and his siblings to leave Newburgh, as she did.

"I tried to tell him there's a better way," she said. "Daquan was a good person."

She said Daquan doted on his baby daughter - the child just turned two, and will grow up without knowing her father.